And the Emmy winners are...? We're happy to guess!

Lynn Elber and Frazier Moore AP Television Writers

Posted:
08/20/2014 08:43:03 AM MDT

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This image released by HBO shows Matthew McConaughey, left, and Woody Harrelson from the HBO series "True Detective." Both Harrelson and McConaughey were nominated for Emmy Awards for best actor in a drama series for their roles in the series. The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards will be presented Aug. 25 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/HBO, Michele K. Short)

Truth be told, we're both perplexed about which Emmy nominees will carry trophies home from Monday's ceremony.

Allow us to explain. There was so much great TV last season that standout prime-time shows including "The Good Wife" and "Scandal" and stars Michael Sheen ("Masters of Sex") and James Spader ("The Blacklist") didn't even make the cut as nominees.

Those who did are, for the most part, richly deserving. But now how to choose among them?

Then there's this year's notable trend of shape-shifting, with programs squeezed into categories that could give them better odds of winning — even if the fit might raise viewers' eyebrows.

Cases in point: Netflix's prison-set "Orange Is the New Black," which despite its dark content is vying with the likes of "Modern Family" for comedy laurels, and HBO's "True Detective," which looks all the world like a miniseries yet is gunning for "Mad Men" and other open-ended dramas.

Thanks, TV academy, for keeping us all guessing!

Even so, this pair of TV devotees are game to try to read the minds of Emmy voters and, in a bit of bravado, offer up our choices for the best of the best.

Here are the contenders and our own sometimes clashing, sometimes matching picks for seven major categories:

DRAMA SERIES:

LYNN ELBER

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Should win: "Game of Thrones." An epic series from epic novels. Drop the anti-fantasy bias, Emmy.

Will win: "True Detective." Such a brilliant miniseries. But we quibble, and voters won't.

FRAZIER MOORE

Should win: "True Detective." Grim, gritty, wickedly addictive.

Will win: "True Detective." How could Emmy snub this true masterpiece?

COMEDY SERIES:

ELBER

Should win: "Louie." Honesty is the best policy — and so brutally funny.

Will win: "Modern Family." It's big-hearted and on broadcast TV. Old school wins one.

MOORE

Should win: "Louie." Emmy needs to kick the "Modern Family" habit.

Will win: "Veep." Emmy will kick the habit — by rewarding the wrong show.

Should win: "Fargo." A glorious movie made new by TV's narrative form.

Will win: "Fargo." Emmy won't miss a chance to remind all that drama's heyday is on the small screen.

MOORE

Should win: "Fargo." A Tiffany egg of a miniseries in its painstaking perfection. Plus it's bitterly hilarious.

Will win: "Fargo." Emmy has moments of myopia, but it ain't blind.

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Lynn Elber is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. She can be reached at lelber@ap.org and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lynnelber

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Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore@ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier. Past stories are available at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/frazier-moore

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